3 days is enough for Cappadocia, I wouldn’t advise any more, and any less would be a tragedy.
The thing with Cappadocia is- it’s an absolute upside world, because the day starts at sunrise, so be prepared for that. This isn’t no resort Holiday; this is a wake up early and see the beauty that is Cappadocia.
When we see the pictures on Instagram, sometimes it feels unreal right? Honestly how can something be that beautiful? Well let me tell you something, Instagram and photos have nothing, absolutely nothing on the beauty of Cappadocia, it’s a real gasp for air kind of beauty. Its absolute surreal. What you capture in the naked eye is nothing on the pictures- no matter what camera you have or how many pixels.
Everyone tell us our pictures look great- I’ll tell you right now- our pictures are nothing compared to real life.
How to get to Cappadocia Itinerary
The first question, best way is to fly there. From Istanbul it’s an internal flight to Cappadocia- there are 2 airports for Cappadocia. Nevsehir and Kayseri. You can go for either. Nevsehir is a 20-minute drive away, whilst Kayseri you’ll be looking at 40 minutes.
Obviously, you need to work out your itinerary according to when you land, but I’ll give a general 3-day itinerary and you can fit it in according to how your day goes
Day One
Cave room.
I can’t emphasise enough that if you are planning a trip to Cappadocia- opt for a cave hotel. I mean where else will you be able to experience this? We stayed at the Vista Cave Hotel. Click here to see the Hotel.
Rooftop breakfast
We had arrived in Cappadocia at 9am, headed straight for our hotel. We stayed at the Vista Cave hotel in Goreme. after dropping our bags off we headed straight for breakfast. When you head into Goreme you’ll see the magical rock structures from afar, trying to get over the structures is quite hard work. We opted for breakfast on a restaurant with a roof top so we could look out to the city. There are loads- absolutely loads of restaurants with rooftops, so you won’t be stuck here.
Quad biking
We arranged Quad biking for our first day. Quad biking takes place either at sunrise or sunset. We had arranged our days according to this. We opted for quad biking at sunset. it’s a full on 4-hour trip which takes us through the sand dunes, and various tourist spots like love valley, Pidgeon valley, sunset point. (Quad biking is 30 Euros per person)
Meal at Kebapzade
Order the famous ‘salt crusted chicken’, not only are you in for a delicious treat (ask for chilli sauce) it comes with a show. The chicken comes flame grilled inside a cocoon, which is broken through by a show of mallets, and it doesn’t end there. The chicken is filled with rice. Absolutely a must see, and a must eat.
Walk through Gerome
Walk through the somewhat very peaceful city of Gerome, go through the souvenir shops and generally get to see the culture. Pop into a coffee shop or two. Try the Turkish desserts baklava and Kunafe.
Get an early night sleep if you have a Hot air balloon ride.
This is important! Pick up is at 4.30 am- so you have to be up by 3.30 to get ready
Day Two- Cappadocia Itinerary
Hot air balloon ride
For the who’s, what, where’s and why click here
Breakfast at hotel
Most hotels in Cappadocia give breakfast in hotel at standard, and it’s a real treat.
Book in a tour
There are 3 tours available. Green, Red and Blue
We went for the Red Tour this was 40 Euros per person this is the north side of Cappadocia- pickup being 9.30 and drop off 4.30 so be prepared for a long day. The Red tour includes Uchisar Valley, Open air museum, Love valley, Lunch at Local restaurant, Pottery demonstration, and Imagination valley
The Green Tour runs from 9.30- 6 and includes a 5-mile hike. (40 Euros)
The Green Tour includes Gerome Panarama, Pidgeon Valley, Underground City, Ilhara valley, Lunch at Bellisima (which is a floating restaurant), Selim monastery, and stone demonstration. (40 Euros)
The Blue Tour also runs from 9.30-6, and this covers Imagination valley, Pasabaglari (fairy chimneys) in Avanos with pottery demonstrations, lunch, Uchisar rock castle, and the Open-air museum.
Just a note to say that all the tours do end up at one point or another going through similar locations, just be aware of that when booking in. We ended up at few points that we had already seen whilst quad biking.
Turkish Hammam
Let’s put it this way- our experience wasn’t great, but a better hammam experience whilst in Turkey would be the icing on the cake after that long tour. Research the place before you make any bookings. Most hammams will take you on, on the spot or give you a time on the same day.
Namaste India. Indian Restaurant for Dinner
Having had Turkish for lunch, we opted for Indian for dinner, and Afsha found us the right spot in ‘Namaste India’
Day 3
Hire a Vintage car and go for a photo shoot
Whether you are into taking a million photos or not, the view from below seeing the hot air balloons go up is just as magical as being on a balloon, so to capture the beauty again, make sure you make a trip to the landing strips and take in the wonder.
If you did want to hire out a vintage car- there are loads of vendors available, but book in early as they are quite popular. I would advise you to book in on the day of arriving, as we ended up paying quite fair bit more as we booked it in last minute. On average you will be looking at between 60-100 euros.
Breakfast at hotel
Don’t miss out- This was our last Turkish brekky before we go back to eggs and beans
Book in another Tour/ Hire a taxi driver for the day
With 3 tours to choose from, on Day 3 you could book yourself in for another tour. We didn’t though as we found that from the red tour and the quad biking and generally just walking around, we had seen a lot of Cappadocia in itself. So instead, we arranged a taxi driver for the day. (The hotel manager arranged this for us)
This was better for us as we got to see the areas, we wanted to see, and spend as much or as little time as we wanted in that area, rather than waiting for a whole group of people. It cost us pretty much the same, and he was at our disposal.
With the taxi driver we covered The Underground City (entrance was 100 Liras-which is £5), Lake Nar, Ilhara Valley, we had to have lunch at Bellisima which was the floating restaurant (although the food wasn’t so great it is such a beauty to see!) and we ended at a carpet weaving shop.
Evening at Sunset point
Our Last night and we had to make sure we get to Sunset point. This is a must. If you are staying anywhere in Gerome can walk it up to here- it’s a 20/25-minute walk uphill, it is quite strenuous and hilly, but worth the walk up.
Watch the beautiful city of Cappadocia from above as the light from above dims and the lights from below switch on. its a mesmerising sight.
Mei Hua Chinese restaurant for dinner
Turkish ticked off, Indian ticked off, now for Chinese. And it did not disappoint.
Shisha away into the night
There are loads of shisha points around Gerome. We went to one close to our hotel, called Fatboy’s so that the walk back wouldn’t be too hard.
What we Didn’t do- but you could….
We pretty much covered a lot and covered most of the bases. Obviously, we would have loved to have visited more food stops– but there’s only so much we could eat.
The Carpet shop for photo shoot would be one place we probably would’ve visited if we had an extra day. This is £12 entry charge, but you get the whole place to yourself to have the most fabulous photos, or for additional cost you could hire out photographers to take photos for you. Trust me when I say they know what they are doing. We did go past it though.
Horse riding- this was a “should we, shouldn’t we” type thing, and we were so tired we let this one go. But we have heard it is a really good experience, and it’s also absolutely fine if you have never ridden a horse before. Horse riding is 30 Euros per person.
And that’s all folks, unless you find something that I have missed out.
Have you been to Cappadocia? How did you find it?
Love and regards
M11bna
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